Chapter Two – Dreams and Goodbyes

The door of Number four swung viciously on its hinges, slamming into the wall behind. Vernon Dursley stormed into the house, face purple and his fists clenched angrily by his side. Not too soon after, a timid Petunia entered a little more slowly, followed by a petrified Dudley.

The door had nearly blown shut as the Dursley's disappeared upstairs when it was pushed gracefully open again. A young man of 17 entered, dragging a trunk behind him all the while looking at the surroundings. Not that he could really remember much from his fourth year …

'Don't hold the door or anything, Ron' said Harry pushing the door into Ron's back with a rare grin.

'Harry … I don't think your family is too happy we invited ourselves here' said Hermione Granger, who was now stuck behind Harry.

Harry looked at Hermione with a raised eyebrow 'You call these animals my family?' he said smirking. 'Besides, I don't think we should stay long here, just long enough for me to reduce my luggage'

With a shove from Harry, Ron stepped out of the way. Not even bothering to avoid bumping into furniture, Harry dragged his trunk violently up the stairs, urging the others to move quickly.

Harry was used to being nagged by his 'family' in a reminder that he was not welcome in his house.

'You filthy ingrate, I don't want you here for more than a week' his uncle had said on the car trip home, not knowing that he had two stowaways in the back of his car, hidden underneath an invisibility cloak. Harry had taken to scaring Dudley into sitting in the front by pointing his wand at him behind Vernon's back whilst throwing a constant death look at him.

At the thought of this, Harry chuckled underneath his breath, ignoring the queer looks he was receiving from Ron and Hermione.

Once the three were safely in Harry's room, they all collapsed on the floor out of sheer exhaustion.

'I sure could go for some food' Ron said, rubbing his stomach.

Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled out a sandwich from a pocket in her trunk. 'You have a smart mother, Ronald' she said, chucking the package at Ron with a sigh.

They all sat for a while in silence, as though it was the first time they had had the chance since before school ended. Ron was munching his sandwich, while Hermione was staring at the birds frolicking about on the power lines. Harry, however, had his head leant back against the wall, his eyes closed firmly. His right hand was in his pocket, and he was playing around with the locket that was part of the cause for Dumbledore's death. He was thinking intently on what the initials 'R.A.B' could stand for. It didn't take long for Harry to loose consciousness, leaving Hermione and Ron in a strange silence.

'Do you think he'll ever be the same?' Hermione said, tearing her eyes from the power lines, making sure that Harry was indeed sleeping.

'Huh?' Ron said through his last mouthful of food.

'Harry … I mean, with all he went through with Dumbledore' she replied, looking at Harry with a sincere look of concern.

Ron didn't reply – instead he shrugged his shoulders, sharing Hermione's look of concern.

Harry was walking along a cobblestone path, walking in the shadow of a tall figure. The air was stale, and everything had a sort of eerie blur to it. Adding to the effect was the fact that not a noise could be heard; not even a whisper of air blowing through the trees.

A building materialized in front of Harry and the figure he was following – a neat little house with cute vines growing all over the walls. With a wave of the figures hand, the door flew open, light spilling out onto the door step.

Upon stepping inside, Harry got the strange feeling of deja vu, as though he had visited this house before – smelt the unique smell that came with it. The figure began walking up a set of stairs, not even looking to either side.

'What you have come to do tonight: you will not succeed' said a man with messy black hair.

With that, the man drew his wand. Harry watched in awe as a slight breeze picked up around his father, a golden glow surrounding his entire body. Muttering two unknown words the man pointed his wand at the hooded man. A red beam exploded from the tip of his wand, hurtling straight into the intruders stomach..

Lord Voldemort was blown into (or rather, straight through) Harry. He hit a back wall, making a dent in the brick, causing brick dust to fly everywhere. Standing up, Voldemort through back his hood revealing his slit like nostrils, and glowing red eyes. Pointing his wand at James Potter, he muttered two unforgivable words, causing a jet of green light to fly into the wall behind James.

Figuring out the obvious, James retreated to his bedroom, where his wife and child were now hiding. 'You will not hurt them!' he shouted, sounding desperate.

'That's where you are horribly mistaken' said Voldemort, running his wand along his own neck in a threatening gesture.

'AVADA KEDAVRA'

With that, a fierce battle erupted, curses flying everywhere, smashing walls open, knocking dressers to the ground. There was a flash, and then Harry was standing in the ruins of the once beautiful cottage. Voldemort was standing over a body that was still holding onto a small child.

Another body lay two meters away, also lifeless. A sadistic grin spread across Voldemort's face as he knelt to his knees, tucking his wand into the folds of his pitch black cloak.

'Poor Lily …' he said, pushing a sprig of red hair from her face with a pale, pointy finger.

'GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF HER!' Harry screamed, trying to find his wand.

'We would have been good together' he said, placing a finger on her chest, just where her heart would be. 'Extraho quod tutela is meus animus' Voldemort began to chant.

After a minute or so, Voldemort stopped chanting, and began to do the same to the other dead body, all the while the baby Harry was crying, sparks of anguish flying from his hands. Once he had finished saying goodbyes to his two Victims, Voldemort walked over to the baby Harry …

'I showed you this for a reason Harry. Don't worry: it won't hurt when it happens. You'll see' said a familiar wise voice coming from behind the adult Harry.

Spinning around, Harry just caught a glimpse of Dumbledore's face, before his eyes sprung open, and he threw his head forward, straight into Ron's face.

'…What the?' Harry said in shock.

'Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing' Ron grumpily replied from somewhere in front of Harry.

Looking down, Harry saw his red headed friend holding his bleeding nose. Outside the sky was a light shade of orange, and birds were frantically finishing of their days business, before retiring to their nests for the night.

'Harry … that was really scary' Hermione said, her voice shaking. 'We couldn't wake you, no matter how hard we tried. W – we thought you were …'

Harry didn't need Hermione to finish the sentence. He already knew that that was no straight forward, run of the mill dream. It had structure to it … a lot like looking at a memory in a penseive. The only different thing was now he had a splitting head ache, all over his head. It was as though his brain had just under taken a vigorous exercise. He clutched a hand to his head.

'Your scar …?'

Harry shook his head, which made it hurt even more. 'Guys I just want to get all my stuff together so we can leave straight away in the morning' he said, in an attempt not to explain what he had just witnessed. He didn't want to relive it just yet …

The morning began bright and early for Harry Potter. His eyes flew open as though he had never been sleeping, and he felt as though that was true too. His head had stopped aching finally, and now there was a sort of numbness about it.

On his left, Hermione was sleeping on a fluffy mattress that Harry had forcefully borrowed from Vernon. The sun was falling across her face melodramatically, and her hair lay spread messily across her pillow. Harry smiled, sitting up and putting his glasses on. He laughed when he looked to his right, seeing Ron tangled up in a ball of sheets, drool falling out onto his pillow.

He looked around his room: it was barer than he could ever remember it being. Harry looked over to the door: beside it two trunks were stacked, ready to go, along with Hedwig's cage. Hedwig would be meeting them at the burrow.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, taking particular care to stand on Ron's head. 'Wake up' he said with a laugh, watching as Ron quickly sat up and started scratching his body all over.

Leaving Ron to wake himself and Hermione up, Harry left the room, and headed down the hall to his Aunt and Uncles room. Harry couldn't remember ever coming this far down the hall. He intended to thank his family ever so politely and then leave without a further word.

Opening the door to their room, Harry invited himself in. Vernon and Petunia were already sitting up awake, reading newspapers.

'I told you not to bother us … and … HOW DARE YOU COME ANYWHERE NEAR THIS BEDROOM!' screamed Vernon, ignoring the fact that his neighbors were probably at this moment, sleeping.

Harry laughed, and gave Vernon an extremely rude gesture.

'You guys never welcomed me into this family. You treated me like I was a piece of dirt that got dragged in on your shoes. For that: I thank you. I'm thanking you because it worrys me to think of what sort of brat I could have become' he said, looking in the direction of Dudley's room. 'Petunia, I wish I could have met you without this oaf. You and me are blood, whether you like it or not: I think you know that'.

With that, he spun around and left, never to see Vernon again.

When he reached his bedroom, Hermione and Ron were ready to go, both of them sitting on Harry's bed, rather nervously.

'Can we go already … I don't like it here' said Hermione.

'Neither do I … but I lived here all my life' said Harry with a grin. 'How are we getting to the burrow, anyway? We probably should have organized it a bit better, hey?' he completed, thinking of the rushed plans they had made at the train station.

'Someone from the order his coming to get us in' Ron looked at his watch 'well, right now' he said, just as a very tired Lupin apparated behind Harry.

'Hello kids' he said with a sigh. Lupin looked as bad as he did the day Harry first met him. His robes were dirty, his hair a knotted mess. Even his eyes looked duller than they usually did. Harry figured that Lupin wasn't taken the harsh loss very well either.

'We can't stay for long … I promised your parents that I would have you back in at most ten minutes. They thought it best only sending one person to get you guys … plus I missed you at the train station … had a few issues with my other half' he rambled, all the while checking to see if they had indeed gotten everything they needed.

'Well, we're definitely ready to go' Harry said, grabbing onto his trunks.

'In that case, hold on tight' said Lupin, sticking out his arms.

Harry grabbed on to his right arm, Hermione and Ron his left. With a slight 'pop' they left the 'perfectly normal, thank you very much' number four, for the last time ever.